Book III of Geoffrey Chaucer’s epic Medieval poem, Troilus and Crisedye, contains the line:And after winter folweth grene MayEven with only a cursory understanding of Middle English, it’s pretty obvious that Chaucer is commenting on May being the first month of the year when everything is verdant.Winter is over, the…
Bigger queens, better queens – part 3
The qualities of the queen – her fecundity, longevity, genetics etc. – are the most important influence on colony ‘success’.You could measure that success in terms of reproduction (if free-living, does the colony swarm successfully?) or – of more relevance to a beekeeper – by the weight of the honey…
Beekeeping records
All around the country, new beekeepers – fresh from attending a How to start beekeeping winter course – will be buying their first nuc, eagerly watching a bait hive for scout bees, or precariously teetering up a stepladder trying to entice a lost swarm (someone else’s) into a skep.Your first…
Informed decisions
One of the attractions of beekeeping is the seasonal variation, both within a single season and between one year and the next.Early colony expansion enables the spring nectar flow to be exploited, and leads simultaneously – almost inevitably and so reasonably predictably – to swarming. Colonies are re-queened (or re-queen…
Bees in the News – #1
Welcome to the first of the irregular Bees in the News newsletters. These will appear – at most – monthly. Each will contain a combination of links and brief comments on topics that may or may not justify a full post at some point in the future. Inevitably – reflecting…